Sonora Sunrise - The Route Through the Canyon. 2019 Russia

In the last 25 years, we've seen Russian musicians, especially of the progressive space rock variety, exploring their vast country and the mysteries it holds within. Ole Lukkoye from the decidedly European city of Saint Petersburg pioneered this undertaking. Vespero from Astrakhan transcended the precedent set. Then the Russian born, American based label Trail Records, has taken this concept even further with two full length compilations (Tripwave) of various Russian bands performing a similar style. One of the many characteristics of this sound are exotic female voices, haunting keyboards, pounding / shifting rhythms, and fuzzed out psych guitars.

Enter Sonora Sunrise, a new band performing in the style above, that said label Trail is promoting. And this time we have a band that actually resides in the area of the world often explored. Sonora Sunrise are from the Altai region, northeast of Kazakhstan, and relatively close to both Mongolia and even the far northwestern parts of China. This is a region that is still largely unknown and misunderstood in the West.

Now comes the irony. The band moniker itself implies the southwestern deserts of the US and Mexico. And Sonora Sunrise sing (and title their songs) in English with no Cyrillic subtitles, a definite departure from the norm. But the rest of the narrative holds serve. The vocals are indeed female, and she is on about half the album and is labeled a "guest". The remainder is your standard 4 piece with guitars and keyboards. The latter, I might add, are boasted to contain Soviet era analog synthesizers. A) I didn't even realize there were Soviet era synthesizers and b) I didn't know it was a "thing". The one photo I saw looked pretty cool though.

Musically speaking, the album goes for more of the slow-burn variation of psychedelic. More haunting and brooding than jamming out. The vocals are sensuous and exotic. The lyrical themes are very consistent with the American desert, which indicates that the Altaian desert may have a similar backdrop. 'Canyon', 'Roadside Picnic', 'Ancient Stones', and 'Poison' gives one an idea. The one track where Sonora Sunrise do kick out the jams is the appropriately named 'Millions of Snakes', which to my ears recalled Titan in their prime (minus the Hammond organ). This was the highlight song for me.

If looking for comparisons, I'd offer up a more static Vespero meets The Space Spectrum, The Cosmic Dead, and even Agitation Free's 2nd album. I do think the band needs to let it loose occasionally to offset the tension that they are clearly masters at building. Most excited where they go from here.

Ownership: CD: 2019 Trail. Multi-foldout digipak.

2/22/19 (new entry)